GE Global Research The GE Store for Technology Contents 2 Materials 5 Manufacturing 10 Industrial Internet 15 Energy Welcome to GE Global Research, also known as the GE Store for Technology. Across our global network of nine technology centers, we have more than 3,600 of the world’s best scientists and engineers driving advanced technologies for all of GE’s industrial businesses. They are part of a global team of 50,000 technologists across the company driving GE’s future every day. At Global Research, our scientists and engineers don’t work for one business; they work for all of them. Their skills and expertise are applied wherever they’re needed. Over time, they get exposure to projects with different GE businesses that allow them to readily transfer technical knowledge from one business to another. It’s part of every GE researcher’s DNA to think and act in this way. The GE Store is a place where every business can come for technologies, product development and services that no one else can provide. The work of our researchers ties directly into the operational plans and product roadmaps of our businesses. GE business leaders meet with our technical leaders once every quarter to review their portfolios. What you will see and read about in the following pages are key examples of the connections being made through the GE Store and their value to our businesses. At Global Research, we rarely ever start from square one on a new project. It was early testing of ceramic matrix composite (CMC) parts in Power & Water’s land-based gas turbines in the early 2000s that helped us realize these parts could work in our jet engines for Aviation. The improved efficiency these parts enable is a big reason why our newest engine platform, the CFM LEAP, is the fastest selling engine in GE Aviation’s history. The story of CMCs is one of many across our portfolio that illustrate the knowledge, experience and broad scientific and engineering skillsets GE businesses can pull from within our GE Store for Technology to create new growth opportunities for the company. It is the innovation engine that drives everything we do. Enjoy your visit to GE Global Research. We are excited to share what we are working on with you. Mark Little 1 GE’s new CFM-LEAP engine is the fastest selling commercial engine in modern history, and advanced technologies from the GE Store have played a big role in why. The engines contain CMC shrouds in the hot section and 3D printed fuel nozzles—both are firsts for jet engines and key to delivering unprecedented performance and efficiency. Materials 2 Silicon Carbide (SiC) Background: Future GE product applications include: smaller, more compact In the early 1980s, GE ushered in a new era in energy conversion with power devices to meet the increasing electricity needs of airplanes; the invention and realization of the Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor more efficient conversion devices in applications like solar inverters (IGBT)1. Developed by GE, this power switching device would become to reduce power losses for solar and wind generation by half; new the gateway for managing the flow of current for a very wide range of applications in hybrid electric vehicles that extend driving range by electrical systems. Today, a team of GE scientists is on the cusp of a 10%; new solutions for healthcare imaging systems such as in MRI new revolution in power management using a breakthrough material, gradient drives for improved image quality and smaller footprint; silicon carbide (SiC). more efficient tractions drives for GE Transportation; and enabling more efficient motors for oil and gas production. For IGBTs and predecessor switching devices, silicon (Si) has been the workhorse material. But recent advances in SiC are promising To accelerate needed advancements, GE has become a lead a better material that will set new standards of efficiency and industry partner in New York State’s Power Electronics performance. For more than two decades, GE has been a leader in Manufacturing Consortium. GE is partnering with State University SiC technologies. We’ve demonstrated the world’s best performance of New York (SUNY) Polytechnic Institute to build the world’s most in power devices, advanced packaging and power electronic advanced fabrication line for manufacturing SiC power devices. applications with this technology. The new Albany-based fab will employ GE’s proprietary technology Power devices are the critical components in electronics that to develop and produce best-in-class SiC devices that will regulate how power is delivered and used. For power generation revolutionize the power electronics industry. GE is contributing in sources like wind and solar energy, they convert energy into usable excess of $100mm in IP and value to the consortium. To scale up the forms for homes and businesses. In hybrid vehicles, they manage the technology and reduce fabrication costs, manufacturing must move electricity running through electric motors that affects driving range. from the current industry standard of 4" wafers size to 6" wafers. And for data centers, they control how well power is used by the The Albany Fab will be set up for 6" wafer production with the ability large scale computer systems that manage mass volumes of data. to increase to 8". GE business applications: The GE Store difference: GE already has begun commercializing new SiC-enabled products Because of their clear line of sight to all of GE’s business for some power supplies in Aviation and is actively developing needs, GE researchers are developing revolutionary applications for products across multiple GE businesses. technology that will span several GE business applications. We’re even launching a new start-up business to sell SiC into And much like we are doing with the GE – Fuel Cells applications beyond GE, and a manufacturing partnership start-up, we have the technical depth and industry breadth will enable us to supply high volumes of SiC devices. This will to build up a whole new business to serve the industry help to reduce overall costs and enable more widespread more broadly. commercialization of the technology. 1. B. J. Baliga, “Fast-switching insulated gate transistors”, IEEE Electron Device Letters, Vol. EDL-4, pp. 452-454, 1983. 3 Ceramic Matrix Composites Background: High temperature materials are vital to GE’s turbomachinery, from gas turbines to jet engines. When you have materials that can handle higher temperatures, you can run your engine hotter or reduce the amount of cooling that you need to keep these materials from melting. These factors translate into higher engine efficiency and less fuel burn for our customers. In the late 1980s, GE scientists began exploring ceramic matrix composites as an alternative to metal parts in its turbo machinery. The thought was simple: Ceramics inherently can handle hotter temperatures than metal and much lighter, but traditional ceramics are brittle by nature. What if you could engineer the ceramic in such a way that it had metal-like damage tolerance? Then you would truly have a watershed material that could set a new standard for engine efficiency and performance. GE business applications: Initially, the focus of GE’s CMC program was to develop parts for power generation gas turbines. In fact, much of the early validation testing was done on gas turbines that we had already installed with customers. But with a more urgent need for the technology evolving in aviation, the program shifted to jet engines. A first for jet engines: In 2016, GE’s CFM LEAP engine for narrow body aircraft will go into service with the world’s first CMC parts on a jet engine. Soon afterwards, GE’s largest engine platform, GE9X for Boeing 777Xs, will go into service with multiple CMC components. As we continue to build more CMCs into our future jet engine platforms, attention has turned back again to gas turbines in our Power & Water business. Before too long, new generations of our gas turbine products will come with CMCs. The GE Store difference: It pays to have both the Power Generation and Aviation businesses make the investment and share in the development. Our Aviation business will run over 60 LEAP test engines and will conduct millions of hours of material testing. Our Power Generation business complements the test campaign by performing long-term engine tests with gas turbine customers. After logging over 30,000 hours of operation and generating more than 5 billion kWhr of electricity for residential and commercial use, we were convinced that we have a winning technology. 4 At GE, additive manufacturing is a cumulative set of tools such as 3D printing, cold spray and Direct Write (3D inking) (shown here) that we are applying throughout our manufacturing operations. By 2025, we expect additive manufacturing methods will be used in the design and manufacture of more than 20% of GE’s new product concepts. Manufacturing 5 Brilliant Factory Background: Examples include: Across the Company, there is an exciting convergence taking place • Development of a real-time scheduling system that allows us to between Information Technology (IT) and Operational Technology (OT). adjust part flow decisions every day to ensure on-time delivery of The meeting of software and hardware is connecting factory floors to our products. This app is now being commercialized through GE’s “The Cloud” and igniting a third industrial revolution in manufacturing. Intelligent Platform (IP) business. It will be scaled up within GE and with strategic partners. At GE Global Research, we have a dedicated global team in advanced In multiple facilities across the globe we have connected equipment manufacturing working across GE’s industrial businesses to virtually to continuously monitor and optimize processes at the transform our ~400 manufacturing and services plants into Brilliant machine level, flow through the factory, maintenance operations, Factories.